1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrical connector for establishing an electrical high-load (“HL”) connection(s) and an electrical low-load (“LL”) connection(s) in which the LL connection cannot be closed until the HL connection is closed and the HL connection cannot be separated until the LL connection is separated.
2. Background Art
DE 10 2004 054 360 A1 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 6,982,393) describes an electrical connector which includes power terminals and attachment-sensitive terminals. Via a lever, the power terminals are connected to one another and then the attachment-sensitive terminals are connected to one another. The attachment-sensitive terminals actuate a relay such that the. relay disconnects an electrical connection with the terminals of a power supply. As a result, current does not flow through the power terminals until the power terminals are completely connected to one another and the power terminals can only be separated from one another in a current-free state. The connector is designed as a single-pole lever switch which is able to establish only one power connection. If multiple power connections are to be established, then either a corresponding number of single-pole lever switches or a multi-pole switching variant having a relatively complex switch structure is required.
It is a problem if electrical feed lines for an electrical high-load connection(s) and an electrical low-load connection(s) are supplied to an electrical connector in parallel as the connector is therefore situated at the end point of the feed lines making it difficult to insert the connector into a cable harness to be installed.